EXPERT WITNESS: Secondary victims in trauma cases

The duty of care of health professionals towards secondary victims

Summary:

OH law expert Diana Kloss considers the recent Supreme Court decision where ‘secondary victims’ had attempted to claim compensation for psychiatric illness caused by witnessing the death of their loved ones, which they alleged had resulted from prior medical negligence.

I am often asked to give talks to occupational health (OH) professionals about ‘the legislation’. Almost the first thing I must explain is that the legal duty of care owed by doctors, nurses and other health professionals is primarily a common law, not a statutory duty. The common law is the body of rules developed by judges by deciding the cases before them and in the course of doing so creating precedents setting out legal rules which are binding on later courts. It is developed case by case, brick on brick, often over centuries.

Precedents set by the higher courts are binding on the courts below them in the hierarchy. The UK Supreme Court is currently the highest appeal court …

Diana Kloss is a barrister, former part-time employment judge, Acas arbitrator and author.

Author: Kloss D

Tags case law law

Occupational Health at Work April/May 2024 (vol. 20/6) pp27-29

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